Breastfeeding/bottle feeding in the hospital

I am 30 weeks pregnant and starting to do some research into feeding. I plan on both breastfeeding and bottle feeding (w/formula). I haven't decided how long I'm going to BF yet...

OK, so my question...is it really absolutely necessary to wait 6 weeks to introduce a bottle? I have three different friends who BF for at least 3 months and each child got formula in the hospital during the overnight feedings. None of them had any problems as a result. In fact, they told me to definitely let the baby stay in the nursery during the night so I can get some sleep in the hospital. Every single source I've read, though, says you CANNOT introduce a bottle that early.

As you can see, I'm a totally confused mom-to-be! Would you mind sharing your experiences?

Re: Breastfeeding/bottle feeding in the hospital

I BF for 8 months. My son got a bottle in the hospital ( no milk yet) and then by 3 months he had some bottles with breast milk. He also got a pacifier and as my pediatrician said... A baby will **** on whatever you put in its mouth. Dont get stressed out about it.

I tried not to give him a bottle in the hospital but he was STARVING and when I found out it was my fault (wanting to BF only) it nearly broke my heart. Thank God for the nurse that told me it was OK to give him a bottle. But your right the breast nazis ( that's what I have come to call them) are totally against it and even the nurse said she wasnt supposed to tell me that.

Give that baby anything it wants!!!

I dont know why it edited the word s*ck. It was not used in a nasty way, oh well.

Message edited 6/29/2005 3:25:38 PM.

Re: Breastfeeding/bottle feeding in the hospital

I BF and bottle fed (formula) my daughter since day 1 and I have never had any problems with her...she is now completley on formula and she is 5 months old I BF for about 4 months

Re: Breastfeeding/bottle feeding in the hospital

I planned to BF only, but after my c/s I was not able to for several hours, so the nurse asked if the baby could have a bottle of formula, I agreed since I didn't want her to be starving.

After that I b/f her only and had the nursery bring her to me when she was hungry overnight. She is 6 months now and we are still exclusively BF, but we introduced a bottle of bm around 3 weeks and she took both breast and bottle with no problem. However it is important to be consistent with the bottle, we forgot to give it to her for a week or so and she refused it after that for a while and we had to go thru it all over again when I went back to work.

I really believe that every baby is different, I have heard of stories where once the baby had a bottle they never took the breast again or it was given too often in the first few weeks that is affected the moms milk supply.

Re: Breastfeeding/bottle feeding in the hospital

Once my baby took formula in a bottle he never went back to the breast. He had a strong **** but he was lazy and didn't want to latch correctly. Our problem wasen't him getting the bottle per see it was that at 24 hours old when he was getting colestrum from me the nurse gave him 3 oz of Enfamil (which didn't agree with him) so he was really full since a newborn doesn't need that much and he didn't want to latch on ever again and believe me we tried. The poor LC (nazi) was getting all worked up which was stressing him out and all he would do was gulp air and get gas.



I gave it about 5 days and decided it wasen't making either of us happy and would just pump into bottles. Now at 5 weeks I am slowly introducing forumla in his bottles and plan to use both.